Campus News |
ART CENTER NEWSWIRE - January 3, 2000
PASADENA, CA, USA | To keep abreast of the exciting and innovative ideas, people and projects at Art Center College of Design, the media and general public can subscribe to Art Center's news digest by sending a blank email to: newswire-on@lists.artcenter.edu. We highlight some of the newsmakers in our Art Center community on the first and third Monday every month. To report news or obtain more information, contact Jan Kingaard, tel. 626-396-2394, fax 626-683-9233.
ADVERTISING
Pasadena Star News
Good grief! Charlie Brown, the round-headed kid whose "Peanuts" gang provided laughs for nearly 50 years, is retiring January 4th from the funny papers. San Gabriel Valley fans said that there is something in Schulz's strip that they find nowhere else in the comics. In fact, Schulz created that rarest of pop-culture iconsones that transcended age, generations and nationality, said Mikio Osaki, chair of Art Center's Advertising Department. Readers around the globe related to Charlie Brown's inherent goodness and naivete, Linus' need for security and Lucy's crabby behavior, said Osaki. "Everybody could identify with the Charlie Brown persona. He's sort of our alter ego. How old is he? Seven years old? He's ageless. He never got old, but we did. And we kept reading." Schulz was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and studied art after he saw a "Do you like to draw?" ad. Charlie Brown, named after a friend at art school, was to some extent the cartoonist's alter ego, and Snoopy was inspired by a dog he had as a child.
ART CENTER AT NIGHT
Daily News
Spring semester classes are offered in advertising, digital media, photography, illustration, graphic arts, fine arts, film, etc. Instruction runs from January 18 through April 22. For people building a portfolio to apply to Art Center's degree program, those seeking a career change, and for working artists and designers enhancing professional skills, classes will be held in Pasadena and San Francisco. Visit www.artcenter.edu/atnight.
ART CENTER COLLEGE OF DESIGN
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
"There's not enough creativity going into donor recognition," says Dyan Sublett, senior vice-president for institutional advancement, noting that a lot of organizations buy nice objects for their donors, but the piece itself does nothing to remind the donor of the institution. At Art Center, there are columns of foot-long aluminum pencils displayed in dramatically lit windows near the entrance to the college. The pencils have removable tips in different colors; each color represents a range of gift sizes. When donors make repeat gifts, the tip of the pencil is replaced with the appropriate color and the pencil is moved to a new spot in the display. That feature, Sublett says, has helped draw many new gifts particularly from companies that recruit graduating students to design their products. Donors' names are engraved on the display pencils; the contributors also get an identical copy of the pencil in a teakwood case. Dennis S. Juett came up with the contest-winning idea when a student at the college. His creative strategy was to represent the tool that all design students use and to acknowledge donors who give $25,000 or more. The pencils have helped generate more than 200 gifts totaling over $53 million; and, have helped students think about philanthropy which could generate long-term benefits for the prestigious institution. .
Pasadena Star NewsStudents' futuristic visions of products that could end up on your 21st century wish listeverything from a wearable computer dress for the fashionable techno-nerd to a new wave potato peelerwent on show as the winter term's graduating class of 148 students put the final projects on display for family and friends. The showcase included consumer electronics, lighting, movie characters, sports equipment, furniture and fashions, and product collaborations with such companies as BMW and Universal Studios. Graduating senior Laura Leimon, a graphics designer, explained some of the challenges involved in designing packaging; Mark Gullickson displayed his concept for an inflatable structure for Mars exploration done for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; while Grace Chang showed off her beach volleyball shoe for Reebok. Students are encouraged to put their design talents to practical use, and graduates have been responsible for such cultural landmarks as the "Got Milk?" advertising campaign and the new VW Beetle.
Los Angeles TimesArt Center is one of the institutions represented on the Advisory Board for Visual Arts which awards the Nation Alliance for Excellence Scholarships, a visual arts endowment. More than 2,000 portfolios are judged by the Board which includes Art Center, Time magazine, Hallmark, the Fashion Institute of Technology, Galleria de Ros and Parsons School of Design.
Los Angeles TimesAs his administration begins to wind down, Mayor Richard Riordan is wrestling with the conflicting priorities of jobs and education, a debate that plays out in the hunt for new school sites. In general, the mayor said, business leaders share his determination to improve education and add to the region's stock of schools. The focus on sites plays to some of Riordan's strengths, including an eye for real estate and a knack for deal making. For years, the post office has planned to lease or sell a portion of the Terminal Annex on the edge of downtown. In the initial debate over the building, Riordan favored Art Center over a telephone data switching center. Riordan was interested in the college because he believed that it would bring jobs and life to downtown.
Los Angeles TimesFollowing the groundbreaking for the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, anyone who believes that a city's values are measured by the quality of its civic buildings must have breathed a sigh of relief. The concert hall will become one of the most important landmarks in the city's architectural history. There is a lot of discussion about the transformation of Grand Avenue into a lively cultural hub. To achieve this goal, future development will have to aspire to the architectural standards set by Gehry and Rafael Moneo, architect of the nearby Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, now under construction. And any new plan for the area must reflect a more sweeping understanding of downtown's urban identity. The completion of Disney Hall and the Cathedral will reinforce LA's growing stature as a place of genuine cultural depth. But the city needs to continue tapping into the best creative minds if Grand Avenue is to succeed. It must build a landscape of architectural landmarks that reflects the city's increasingly complex cultural identityits mix of social and ethnic backgrounds, high and low culture, symphonies and action films. Towards that end, the mayor's office would like Art Center to consider moving to the avenue. Art students could serve as the human glue that would bind the various cultural elements of the street to the rest of downtown. And with a faculty and student population the move would reinforce the street's identity as a place where art and culture are produced as well as consumed.
FINE ART & ILLUSTRATION
Newsweek
A hot young crop of Los Angeles artists is spawning a feeding frenzy among the city's mogul-collectors, reports Peter Plagens and Corie Brown. The rubber meets the road in L.A.'s burgeoning art scene at 6150 Wilshire Boulevardjust west of the L.A. County Museum of Art on the old "Miracle Mile." It's a fusion of a new crop of weirdly clever young artists who've mustered out from the market-savvy art departments at Art Center, UCLA and Cal Arts and the show-biz billionaires and millionaires who glom onto the work for the walls of L.A.'s new Medicis. UPN network head Dean Valentine is the lead patron (250 works and counting), followed by the corporate program at Creative Artists Agency (about 150 works) and power broker Michael Ovitz, who used to run CAA and collect blue-chip artists like Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. If you stray outside show-biz circles, there's retired software magnate Peter Norton, whose foundation is avidly collecting young L.A. art.
American Artist"Artists should remember that being able to draw the human form is the acid test of one's capabilities," writes Colorado artist Jacques Devaud in "Drawing the Figure" (March 1997). He then describes his approach to drawing "the great beauty of the human form" with charcoal, Conte' crayons, and graphite. Alumnus Devaud also likes to draw the same landscape over and over, using pastels. Devaud explains that four or five times a day he crosses a meadow to reach his home. The space, surrounded by mountains, is quickly affected by the weather, and the changes in the color, mood, and temperature make it a constantly appealing subject.
Los Angeles Times MagazineAlumnus Esther Pearl Watson illustrated the Very First Person article by Robin Scholer, "A survivor's guide to rehab."
Contract DesignA show of landscape paintings by Idaho resident Robert Moore was on view at Kneeland Gallery recently in Ketchum, Idaho. He grew up on a farm near the Snake River, and his paintings reflect the intimate relationship he has with his homeland. Moore studied at Art Center under Dan McCaw.
PRODUCT DESIGN
Rose Parade
Trophies were awarded to 23 floats in the 111th Rose Parade, "Celebration 2000: Visions of the Future." The exceptional event was watched by an estimated 1 million people in Pasadena and more than 365 million on television. The Founder's Trophy went to "Tee Time 2000," designed by instructor Norm Schureman. The La Canada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association was honored for the most beautiful float built and decorated by volunteers from a sponsoring community organization. In the new millennium, golf is no longer a human sport, but instead a fun zone for robots. These personal robots are sent by their human owners to tee off, then return home to download the results. The fairway and green featured sprouted wheat grass, mondo grass and La Canada backyard greens. Patches of blue statice, white spider and starburst mums, and orchids create the water holesa robot's fantasy and a human golfer's nightmare. These mechanical golfers are decorated with mums, roses, gladiolas and static petals.
The New York TimesAlumnus Frank Nuovo, chief designer at Nokia, is credited with helping Nokia do for cell phones what Swatch did for watches. His ideaturning cell phones into fashion statementshas been hugely successful. Nokia is the 11th most recognized brand worldwide, ahead of Mercedes, according to Interbrand, a consulting firm. Nokia says it was the first to market a GSM phone, designed by Nuovo, in 1992. With the introduction of two analog phones with color faceplates in the early 1990's, Nuovo and others at Nokia began presenting phones as fashion. Nuovo got the inspiration for the 8860 phone's chrome exterior from other high-end accessories, like a chrome flask. The new three-ounce 8200 series, with six easily interchangeable faceplates, is the smallest digital phone on the market in Europe. It was introduced in October in Paris at a fashion show for the designer Kenzo. Like any good designer, Nuovo lives five years out. For example, a pair of prototypes he had in his briefcase were improbably thin and predictably futuristic. The two concept phones have everything: bult-in cameras, fully readable Web pages, personal organizers and a large dose of snazz. By the time phones like these are on the market, Nuovo may well have left the world of communications fashion to pursue his dream to have a jazz club in Monterey and play.
TRANSPORTATION DESIGN
Chicago Tribune
DaimlerChrysler AG's top new designer, who helped create the new Volkswagen Beetle, joined his current employer for its risk-taking nature. Alumnus Freeman Thomas, DaimlerChrysler's vice president of the U.S. advance design strategy, promises the design staff of 300 that he will maintain such innovation. "When I look at that Prowler, I say Œwhat other company would take that risk?'" the 42-year-old said. "We're going to continue to pioneer new vehicle segments. We're cultural architectswe do more than design and shape automobiles. We influence culture." He said designers write scripts with their designs much like movie director Steven Spielberg creates adventures. "I want DaimlerChrysler to be the benchmark," he said confidently. "There's a saying that second place is the first loser."